Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 10

Caspian and Elincia were woken up the next morning by Margarett's scream. The two of them had been sleeping with their arms and legs entwined on one of the couches when the startled sound jerked them awake. Caspian, who was lying on the end of the couch, fell off with a harsh thud, while Elincia sat up and looked around.

"Margarett? What's wrong?" she asked the girl as Caspian sat up and rubbed his head.

"Y-y-you two were sleeping together!" Margarett pointed a finger at the pair, who suddenly realized from both her words and her blush that she wasn't screaming because something had scared her.

"Oh... well..." Elincia's cheeks turned pink.

"That's because..." Caspian tried to say, but he wasn't any better off than his sorceress.

"That's because the two of them are married," Dale said as he walked into the room from the entrance. He was already dressed in black overalls and a sleeveless shirt. From the black soot and sweat covering his forehead, it looked like he was already hard at work. "Married couples are supposed to sleep together."

Margarett tilted her head and frown. "Is that how it is?"

"It is."

"Oh..." She looked back at Caspian and Elincia. "I didn't know you two were married."

"W-we are though," Elincia stumbled over her words.

Margarett suddenly pressed her cheeks to her hands and sighed. "I hope I can one day find a man like Caspian to marry."

"Not in this lifetime," Dale muttered with an overprotective glare.

After waking up, Caspian and Elincia were told they could wash off in the pond. The water was clear and clean enough for it. They used a bucket and some soap to clean off while Dale prepared breakfast inside of the house. While it was very cold, the two of them tried to clean themselves as thoroughly as possible before they got dressed again and headed inside.

Breakfast was smoked meat. Caspian wondered what all the meat dishes were about, but he soon learned that it was because Margarett, as a half-dragon, only ate meat. She was a complete carnivore. According to Dale, she could actually eat meat raw, but she preferred meat that was either smoked or cooked rare.

"You two are heading out, right?" asked Dale after they finished breakfast.

"Yes." Elincia nodded. "We need to be at the train station at ten hundred."

"In that case, you two should probably leave now or you'll be late," Dale said.

"What?" Margarett suddenly whined. "You two are leaving already?"

Elincia smiled gently at the girl. "We have to. Lady Sylvia assigned us a task that requires us to travel to Dorumhold, and we bought tickets to Megaloton today."

"Awww..."

While the girl moaned in complaint, she didn't try and convince them to stay. She seemed very well-behaved for a child of eight or nine years old.

Once they were ready, Caspian and Elincia left the small cottage behind, with Margarett waving and shouting at them as they disappeared into the trees. They walked until they had emerged from the forest. Then they traveled toward Lígoton, entered the village, and made their way quickly to the train station.

The train was already there. It was a simple black train with no adornments whatsoever. Several people were getting on and off, but there was only a light amount of traffic. Since Caspian and Elincia already had their tickets, they didn't need to buy them and just boarded the train after getting their ticket stamped. The only problem they ran into was the person who stamped their train ticket, but a glare from Caspian kept the man from speaking.